Creating A Profile - Novell LINUX ENTERPRISE DESKTOP 11 - ADMINISTRATION GUIDE 17-03-2009 Administration Manual

be applied to either individual users or groups of users. Sabayon lets you edit GConf
defaults and mandatory keys using a graphical tool.
Profile definition is done through a graphical session similar to the one a user would
be running, only inside a desktop window. You can change properties (such as the
desktop background, toolbars, and available applets) in the usual way. Sabayon also
detects changes to the default settings in most desktop applications.
Files or documents that are left in the simulated home directory or on the desktop are
included in the finished profile. This includes many application-specific databases, such
as Tomboy notes. Using this mechanism, it is easy to supply introductory notes or
templates in a manner easily accessible to new users.
A user profile can inherit its settings from a parent profile, overriding or adding specific
values. This enables hierarchical sets of settings. For example, you can define an Em-
ployee profile and derive Artist and Quality Assurance profiles from that.
In addition to providing defaults, Sabayon can also lock down settings. This makes the
setting resistant to change by users. For instance, you can specify that the desktop
background cannot be changed to something other than the default you provide. It
prevents casual tampering with settings, potentially reducing the number of helpdesk
calls, and enabling kiosk-like environments. However, it does not provide absolute se-
curity and should not be relied on for such.
Sabayon also provides a list of settings for applications and generic user interface ele-
ments that have built-in lock down support, including OpenOffice.org, and the GNOME
panel. For example, the panel can be set up to allow only specific applets to be added
to it and prevent changing its location or size on the screen. Likewise, the Save menu
items can be disabled across all applications that use it, preventing users from saving
documents.
The profiles are transferable to other computers. They reside in /etc/
desktop-profiles/, and each profile is saved in a separate ZIP file.

4.6.1 Creating a Profile

Profiles are saved in ZIP files located in /etc/desktop-profiles. Each profile
you save is stored in a separate ZIP file as name-of-the-profile.zip. You can
copy or move profiles to other computers.
26 Administration Guide